As reported on ContractsProf Blog, the phrase except as otherwise specified in this agreement featured in newscaster Dan Rather’s contract with CBS. It also featured in a New York appellate court’s opinion in CBS’s appeal of the trial court’s refusal to dismiss Rather’s breach of contract claim against CBS. At issue was the interplay of two [...]
MSCD 2.18 notes that the passive voice can be of use in contracts. Consider the following example: If any Person brings a proceeding to compel the Recipient to disclose any Confidential Information … In this context, the active voice is wordy. It’s obvious that a proceeding would have to be brought by someone. Because it [...]
One of my afflictions is paranoia regarding and and or. (You may recall my deconstruction of a Toronto restroom notice.) Consider the following: If a proceeding seeks to compel the Recipient or any of its Representatives to disclose any Confidential Information … I’m wondering whether one could improve on that formulation—given that or can be [...]
To my recollection, until a couple of weeks ago I had outright rejected only a single comment, and that was on grounds of undue snarkiness. I had avoided posting perhaps a couple of dozen other comments, but in those cases I attempted to smooth things over by treating the comment as an email and sending [...]
Following on this September 18 post and this September 20 post, the saga continues: Glenn West, partner at Weil Gotshal and author of the two most useful articles on substantive contract law that I’ve come across in a long time, agrees with me on represents and warrants and representations and warranties. Below is the email [...]
If you’ve been lured to this site by my ABA Journal “Legal Rebels” profile and would like to learn more about what I do, you might want to check out the following: the page of this site dealing with my book A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting information about my public seminars with West [...]
It’s clear from reader feedback that I need to do a better job of explaining myself. Here goes: It’s pointless and confusing to use in contracts the phrases represents and warrants and representations and warranties because … Because my informal inquiries indicate that most lawyers treat the elements of those phrases as synonyms, much as [...]
On the website of the state bar of Wisconsin I came across an article entitled “Backdating Documents: Not Necessarily the Stuff of Scandal.” It contains the following passage: Drafting and executing a document after an event occurs, but in a manner that accurately reflects the date on which the event transpired, is a permissible form [...]
While reading Lorne & Bryan’s discussion of representations and warranties I encountered the following statement: Similarly, there should never be any objection to “representations” being made to the best of the knowledge of a party (as opposed to “to the knowledge” of a party, a phrase that is at best ambiguous and at worst contrary [...]
In this post on his licensinghandbook.com blog, Jeffrey Gordon suggests that lawyers should consider the value that contract specialists can bring to the contract process. That got me to wondering whether any such contract specialist would have to be a lawyer. In other words, if a nonlawyer works on a contract, does that constitute the authorized practice [...]
[Updated Sept. 20 12:30 p.m. EDT: I realized that I needed to provide a more succinct version of my analysis. If that's what you're looking for, check out this blog item, which I just posted.] I’ve previously explained why the phrases representations and warranties and represents and warrants are pointless and confusing. And that applies [...]
The August 2009 issue of The Business Lawyer contains a great article by Glenn D. West and W. Benton Lewis, Jr. of Weil Gotshal entitled “Contracting to Avoid Extra-Contractual Liability—Can Your Contractual Deal Ever Really Be the ‘Entire’ Deal?.” Click here for a copy. Glenn is getting into the habit of writing articles that are [...]
As part of their ambitious Legal Rebels project, the ABA Journal has named me one of their fifty “Legal Rebels.” They’ve been rolling out profiles of their Legal Rebels, and they’ve now posted mine; click here to go to it. Rebellion isn’t something that usually comes to mind when I think of the American Bar Association, [...]
For all my dwelling on relating to, I haven’t considered at what point something might be too remote to a given circumstance to be related to it. That, of course, is a fact-driven issue that isn’t susceptible to generalization. But it can be useful to consider examples, and Vickie Pynchon provides one in this post [...]
In this April 2009 post I solicited submissions from any company interested in taking part in this semester’s Penn Law redrafting project. But then I had a change of heart—why not invite a not-for-profit organization to take part? So we’re going to be redrafting a trademark license agreement that The Breast Cancer Research Foundation enters [...]
I was recently reminded of this article on the role of contract managers, as well as this follow-up article prompted by the recession. Both were written by Tim Cummins of the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM). These articles caught my eye because my public seminars and my in-house seminars at companies are attended [...]
The other day I encountered in other words in a contract. An Edgar search indicates that it occurs often enough to be worth mentioning. In effect, in other words allows the drafter to take a second crack at articulating something. As a general matter, say something once, why say it again?
[Revised 2:00 p.m. Sept. 11 to reflect comment by randomjohn] It’s commonplace for resolutions in board consents to state that something is advisable and in the best interests of the company. My first instinct was to say that is advisable and is redundant. But responding to my call for input, reader randomjohn pointed out that [...]
Methinks that the recitals in the average big-time-M&A merger agreement are bloated. By way of example, below are the recitals from the August 31, 2009, merger agreement for Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. I’ve noted some big-picture comments in bracketed italics; I’ll spare you my many micro-level objections. RECITALS WHEREAS, the parties intend that, subject to the terms [...]
Here’s a gripping issue: What should one call a contract requiring that certain information be kept confidential—confidentiality agreement or nondisclosure agreement? What nondisclosure agreement has going for it is the convenient and universally recognized initialism NDA. By contrast, I’ve rarely seen CA used for confidentiality agreement. Nevertheless, I prefer confidentiality agreement, because nondisclosure agreement expresses [...]
I noticed that a third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage has been published. I’ll be purchasing a copy, as GMAU has been the first thing I turn to when looking for guidance on general English usage. Would GMAU be of any use to contract drafters? The language of contracts is limited and stylized—it’s analogous to [...]
I was pleased to receive the other day the following wry email: You’ve inspired me since your presentation to our firm back in May. I used to be content with my drafting before I met you, but I now live in constant internal turmoil. My correspondent’s state of mind comes as no surprise. To master [...]
[Update October 18, 2009: This post has been supplanted by this new post. I'll be deleting this post in the next few days.] [Revised 12:45 p.m. EDT to mention, at the end of this post, a relevant May 2009 blog post.] In my post on the AAA standard arbitration clause, I reiterated my doubts about [...]
While at a social event in Saratoga recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry Kaplan, senior counsel in McDermott Will & Emery’s Chicago office. Ever the imaginative conversationalist, I turned the topic to—what else?—contract drafting. At some point in our conversation Jerry wondered whether contracts wouldn’t be more efficient if drafters were able to refer [...]
